Wrapping Up
In the penultimate session of the conference and have a bit of time to kill, so I will make up for the lack of an update yesterday.
Thursday and today were similar to Tuesday, with the bus swinging by the hotel at 8:20 to take us over to Griffith in Rabina.
We were greeted with tea, coffee, fruit, and various pastries, cakes, and breakfast finger sandwiches before the sections kicked off. The ones I went to for the first morning session were:
Morning tea was more of what we had gotten when we arrived, and from there we went into roundtables - the one I went to was:
Countercultural Architecture?
After the afternoon session we piled onto the bus for a transfer to the Gold Coast Arts Centre for a presentation by John Gollings, a famous Australian architectural photographer who's exhibit on the Gold Coast, complimenting the Venturi and Scott Brown exhibit that we had attended the opening to on Monday. Because of traffic we got there late and encountered a full house. We were quickly given drinks and ushered into the presentation. It was a nice talk and during intermission we looked at the exhibit - a sort of then and now of the Gold Coast.
Following the lecture, I was invited to join the conference coordinator (Andrew) and a contingent of other conference goers for dinner at Bumble - we weren't the only ones with the idea (it seems to be among one of the better restaurants in the city), so there were three very large tables of people from the conference. I had a great time getting to know people, and I couldn't help but be a bit inspired by the fact that around the table there were some of the most regarded architectural professors from across Australia, three Americans (one a professor at Sydney, one at RMIT), an artist, and PhD candidates from Milan, Sarajevo, and others - to think about where we all had come from, and the fact that we were sitting around having a great meal and conversations diverse as our backgrounds, was exciting.
The food was fitting of the good conversation starting out with a tasting plate comprised of salmon on mini pancakes, a pork belly egg roll, and coconut encrusted shrimp. For the main I had salmon with potatoes and green beans, and to round the meal out I had sticky date pudding.
Dinner lasted until 11:00, and we were all wiped as we made the trek back to the hotel. This morning was quite early as I wanted to get to the beach before I left Surfers Paradise. Sunrise over the Pacific was nice, and around 7:30 I headed down to the beach.
After walking down the beach a block, I headed back to the hotel, finished packing, and checked out. Most people are leaving today, so many of us brought our bags to Griffith.
This morning was the usual tea and nosh, and the morning session papers I attended were:
Thursday and today were similar to Tuesday, with the bus swinging by the hotel at 8:20 to take us over to Griffith in Rabina.
We were greeted with tea, coffee, fruit, and various pastries, cakes, and breakfast finger sandwiches before the sections kicked off. The ones I went to for the first morning session were:
1) Structure and its Representation as Ornament: An Introduction to James Fergusson's 1855 Drawing of Facades – given by P. Kohane (University of New South Wales)
2) The Design Philosophy of Gummer and Ford – given by C. Moore (Griffith University)
3) News of the Day: Open Schoolhouses Building the Future of New South Wales, 1880-1896 – given by K. Orr (University of Technology Sydney)
Morning tea was more of what we had gotten when we arrived, and from there we went into roundtables - the one I went to was:
Countercultural Architecture?
1) "And Everywhere those Strange Polygonal Igloos": Framing a History of Australian Countercultural Architecture – given by L. Stickells (University of Sydney)
2) Discipline Dodgers: Freedom and Control in the Intentional Communities of Australia's Counterculture – given by G. Hill (University of Sydney)
3) Counterculture Themes in the Growth and Development of Athfield Architects – given by J. Gatley (University of Auckland)
4) Strategies of a Counter-Culture: Oz Magazine and the Techniques of the Joke – given by A. Brennan (University of Melbourne)
Following the roundtable, it was time for an extended lunch which included the Annual General Meeting of SAHANZ. I managed to get out of it as I could claim non-membership, but everyone else was wrangled inside. I went and enjoyed lunch out in the sun (it has been in the low 70s F and gorgeous during the day) and skyped with the family. About 2:30, the members escaped the building and headed past me looking like they were doing something important. When I inquired where they were off to, they told me to come along. Turns out they had figured out there was a pub on campus, and in lieu of tea time it was beer time. Jugs were quickly ordered and middies were poured to offer a quick break before the afternoon session. Once we returned across campus for the 4:00 start, the afternoon sessions got underway:
1) Under Siege: Piracy, Borders, and Military Architecture – given by J. Ferng (University of Sydney)
2) Towards an Architectural History of Homelessness – C. McCarthy (Victoria University of Wellington)
3) Opening the Archive: The New South Wales Forensic Photography Archive as Evidence of Architectural History – given by J. Preston (University of Queensland)
After the afternoon session we piled onto the bus for a transfer to the Gold Coast Arts Centre for a presentation by John Gollings, a famous Australian architectural photographer who's exhibit on the Gold Coast, complimenting the Venturi and Scott Brown exhibit that we had attended the opening to on Monday. Because of traffic we got there late and encountered a full house. We were quickly given drinks and ushered into the presentation. It was a nice talk and during intermission we looked at the exhibit - a sort of then and now of the Gold Coast.
Following the lecture, I was invited to join the conference coordinator (Andrew) and a contingent of other conference goers for dinner at Bumble - we weren't the only ones with the idea (it seems to be among one of the better restaurants in the city), so there were three very large tables of people from the conference. I had a great time getting to know people, and I couldn't help but be a bit inspired by the fact that around the table there were some of the most regarded architectural professors from across Australia, three Americans (one a professor at Sydney, one at RMIT), an artist, and PhD candidates from Milan, Sarajevo, and others - to think about where we all had come from, and the fact that we were sitting around having a great meal and conversations diverse as our backgrounds, was exciting.
The food was fitting of the good conversation starting out with a tasting plate comprised of salmon on mini pancakes, a pork belly egg roll, and coconut encrusted shrimp. For the main I had salmon with potatoes and green beans, and to round the meal out I had sticky date pudding.
Dinner lasted until 11:00, and we were all wiped as we made the trek back to the hotel. This morning was quite early as I wanted to get to the beach before I left Surfers Paradise. Sunrise over the Pacific was nice, and around 7:30 I headed down to the beach.
After walking down the beach a block, I headed back to the hotel, finished packing, and checked out. Most people are leaving today, so many of us brought our bags to Griffith.
This morning was the usual tea and nosh, and the morning session papers I attended were:
1) In the Shadow of the Enlightenment: Le Corbusier, Le Faisceau and Valois – given by S. Brott (Queensland University of Technology)
2) Opening the Shrine of the Mundaneum. The Positivist Spirit in the Architecture of Le Corbusier and his Belgian 'Idolators' – given by W. Van Acker (Griffith University)
3) Immeuble-villas between Le Corbusier and Albert Gessner – given by C. Schnoor (Unitec Institute of Technology) and C. Kromrei (Technische Universitat Berlin)
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